Colby Covington Plans to 'Drown' Joaquin Buckley in UFC Tampa Headliner

Colby Covington says he’s going to “break” and “drown” Joaquin Buckley 😳

“He’s never been in a 5 round fight with an elite fighter like me… Saturday night I’m gonna drown this guy.”

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Colby Covington plans to take the soul out of Joaquin Buckley at UFC Tampa.

Covington and Buckley will headline UFC on ESPN 63 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on Saturday. While Buckley is on an impressive winning streak, Covington believes “New Mansa” hasn’t fought anyone of his caliber in a five-round affair. “Chaos” claims to be in his prime, unlike the opponents Buckley has faced in the recent past.

Covington plans on taking Buckley into deep waters and drowning him on Saturday night.

“The fight just looks like me just completely breaking him,” Covington said in an interview with the UFC. “Taking him down, taking his will, bringing him to the deep end of the pool and drowning him. I just don’t think he’ll be able to keep up. He’s never been in a five-round fight with an elite fighter like me. He’s been fighting some guys that are past their time. But I’m not past my time, I’m on my prime.

“Saturday night I’m gonna drown this guy… I can just see the quit in guys. I can see the soul leaving the body and just not fighting back as hard. So whether he’s standing up, whether he’s scrambling, certain submissions and takedown attempts. I can start to feel when a guy’s body and soul are starting to leave themselves. So I’m gonna pick up on that, I’m gonna drown him, he’s not gonna be able to hang with me for 25 minutes.”

While Covington is characteristically confident going into UFC Tampa, “Chaos” is a +220 underdog against Buckley’s -260 favorite status. Buckley is riding a five-fight winning streak including three finishes, topped off by the latest one against Stephen Thompson at UFC 307 this past October. Meanwhile, Covington hasn’t won a fight since March 2022 and has lost three of his last five UFC outings overall.